Dell's four-city design marathon explores the concept of sustainable urbanisation

Dell recently concluded the second edition of Designathon, a 24-hour challenge with 339 teams from organisations in fields of architecture, engineering, manufacturing, fashion,  lifestyle and media. The theme this year was ‘enabling human progress through design for sustainable urbanization’, and was hosted as part of the Dell Technologies Forums across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The event saw submissions of 40 ideas and designs for sustainability and four teams (one from each city) made it to the winner's spot. Mumbai Hackerspace designed a semi-articulated truck that functions exclusively as a bus and vice versa at the click of a button, ensuring that the bus per unit economics improves quite substantially.

Challenge accepted: The event reaches out to 2D and 3D design enthusiasts from various industries to showcase their prototype

Bangalore's Boiled Corn Productions' core idea was to enable people by giving them a platform to propagate their small ways of bringing about a change in their day to day lives. The concept involves the production of example scenario videos to show how anyone can make a change to the environment with means of sustainability but doing one or more good acts, hashtagging it with and posting it on Facebook or Twitter and other social media channels. This has the potential to become a very effective Digital Campaign for Social Change.

Satyam Venture Engineering Services from Hyderabad aimed to re-use already printed paper multiple times by developing a machine that erases the printed matter from the paper.

Delhi's Agribazar came up with an idea to design an application for imperfect farm food to tell a perfect story. They aim to develop a market that embraces not-so-good-looking food with good deals and community sharing program.

Dell Designathon, unlike the usual design challenges, is for companies depending on design-led innovation for their products and solutions. It reaches out to 2D and 3D design enthusiasts from various industries to showcase their prototype on a designated theme to bring their ideas to life. 

The event is endorsed and supported by the Association of Designers of India (ADI). This year, Dell also hosted ‘Design Circle’, a mentorship program delivered via workshops for shortlisted teams to augment their design thinking before competing in the challenge. At the challenge, participating teams were provided with access to cutting-edge technology — Precision Tower 5820 and the 43-inch Ultra HD 4K monitor. 

Speaking on the last leg of Dell Designathon in Bengaluru, Srihari Palangala, Senior Director, India Marketing at Dell EMC said, “Dell Designathon is a platform for design tech enthusiasts, and we are delighted to offer this opportunity for aspiring innovators. The event is our way of bringing creativity and technology together that address real challenges with real solutions.”